Random musings

I found this little random thoughts quiz on Preppy Empty Nester and thought it would be a good post for today.
1. What is a word that describes your life?

uneventful

2. What is a word you wish described your life?  adventurous

3. Back in my day we______ did the twist.

4. What kind of takeout do you order?  We don’t do takeout. We don’t have a lot of good restaurants in our town. I would rather wait and eat at home then go to a really nice restaurant in another town.

5. Think about the people you respect. What is it about them that earned your respect?

I respect my friend Linda Platko. She never stopped being deaf make a difference in her life. She didn’t learn sign language but became a lip reader so she wouldn’t stick out. She has the best philosophy of anyone I have ever met. She believes in letting people be themselves and not being critical.

5. What is something your friends might see and say is “so you”?

I think if they would see a chunky colorful necklace they might say that. Or art materials.

Painting

Last week’s painting. 

Smokies

My son Ryan and his family live right at the edge of the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and he works among these hills at a water park/resort. It is so beautiful there and we enjoy visiting. They get season passes to Dollywood and can go anytime they want all year long. In October we all went to see the Pumpkin fest. There are a lot of touristy attractions in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg and lots to do. I’d like to paint this picture for them.

Ok, so we’re silly

How often do you get to be silly at 73? Our Giggle Girl group doesn’t have to ask this question as we meet every three weeks and laugh our heads off (till tears are rolling down our thighs)…Just kidding! I have often asked “where does all the fun go when you get old?” It seems we get more serious as we age and don’t belly laugh like we used to. But not on Giggle Girl days. I mean …how can you not laugh when one of your friends wears bunny ears, bunny socks and a carrot necklace around her neck?

And she came with a hilarious story. This is Sue and Sandy drove her to Sharon’s house. Only they went down the wrong lane and pulled in the wrong driveway. Sue got out, bunny ears and all and opened up the door. No one was home (except the roofers) and she hollered and then they both realized they were at the wrong house!
I know, we seem senile, but it was funny! We laugh at the simplest things. I said , “can you imagine us all on a cruise?” and someone said, “yeah, they’d probably throw us overboard.”

One girl said she told her therapist about how we laugh and get mixed up while we are trying to talk and play games so that we forget whose turn it is and her therapist didn’t even think it was funny! We did!

Yep, it’s just a bunch of old biddies being silly. And I love it!

A Wrinkle in Time

I don’t know how I got through teaching without reading the classic A Wrinkle in Time. I think it was a little too old for my third graders at the time. But today I picked it up at the library because my grandson will be doing a reading project about the book and asked me to help him. I thought it would be a good thing to read it. I could just go see the movie but that would be cheating. Last year I helped him and he won third place of  all the third grades. I look forward to getting his ideas and putting it together. Last year he was a little resistant at first but once we got into it he really loved it. He has to make a trifold that stands up and answer all kinds of questions about the book. Then he has to incorporate some art work...right up my alley. I can’t wait. That is one thing I miss about retirement from teaching. I loved teaching children’s literature and combine that with creative projects about the books. What fun we will have.

Getting out of Dodge

It has been a sunny week. Even though the temperatures were near freezing or below most of the week the sun has greatly improved my mood. I keep busy all week while my husband spends a lot of time at home. He has COPD and it is hard for him to walk any distance at all so he feels more comfortable just resting at home. So shopping for him is not fun and there are no physical activities, even walks that we can do together. But he does enjoy going out to dinner. So yesterday we went to Jamestown, NY to the Olive Garden, one of his favorite places. He had his favorite, seafood Alfredo. I tried the chicken piccata which had capers and sun dried tomatoes in a lemon garlic sauce.  And the Parmesan crusted zucchini is something I’d like to try at home. Delicious. Afterwards I did a quick tour around TJMaxx, Michael’s, and Wegman’s. Didn’t buy a thing. It was a nice ride and we enjoyed our day.  

When we came home we stopped at the video store. We may have one of the surviving video stores in the country. We only have one redbox in town but a huge video store. We rented Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie never lets you down. And the cinematography was outstanding. 

Music anyone?

                                                            How important is music in your life?

I didn’t grow up in a particularly musical family. My mother sang to me a lot and my sisters and I always sang during car rides. I always remember loving music and as a teen listening to favorite songs. I took piano lessons for around two years and remember hating practicing and playing those classical pieces. But I always loved music. I actually remember the exact time I learned about rock and roll. It was in the driveway of an older girl in the neighborhood who had the radio playing in a window while we were gathered outside. Frankie Lymon sang aWhy do Fools Fall in Love in 1956. That was the beginning of my obsession with rock music. All through my teenage years I sang along to Elvis, Fabian, Paul Anna, and all those crooners. I bobbed to The Witch Doctor and other silly songs like Little Blue Man and Be Bop a Lu La. 

Throughout the sixties I was in college then newly married and entered the era of the Beatles, Stones, and all the rock songs dancing in bars to their strong beats. The seventies disco passed me by as I was busy raising my family and playing kids music. But I always loved music in all its forms as I discovered reggae, zydeco, folk rock, and classical. I loved all genres. I never was much of a record buyer, maybe a few albums now and then and lots of 45’s when I was young. When we turned on the radio we had very few stations that came in. 

So now it amaze me how easy it is to listen to music these days. Just download a free app...Spotify or Pandora and you have access to millions of songs which you can tailor to your taste. Anything you want to hear is available. LIke magic. Or you can tell Alexa to play a song. Instant music. 

I always said you can tell my mood by music. When I am happy I love to have the music going and turned up load, moving along to the songs. If there is no music playing watch out. 

I mentioned that I took a few years of piano. After I stopped I continued to learn piano on my own. I bought the teaching books and advanced and practiced all by myself. When we were first married Don and I purchased a player piano and had the best time pumping and singing along. I continued paying and buying piano books. My honey surprised me one Mother’s Day by buying me a real piano which I still have. I occasionally buy new songbooks. I currently love the ones I just bought and sit down to play often. 

I am so happy that my grandchildren are musical. Dan plays the guitar, piano and trumpet. Scott plays the guitar and drums. Both my little grandchildren sing. I love it that this talent is passed on to them. 

HOw about you? Has music influenced your life?  What type of music do you like?

Spring mantle

I did a little change up on my mantle for spring.

Of course there is my collection of blue and white pottery. The one in the center is a new addition bought in a flower shop. I just added some ferns and a stalk of contorta branch.

The white bird flower holder came from my sister.


I changed out the picture above to a pink spring feeling one. And added a little banner below.

In the tall vase I added some twigs and blossoms.


Now it feels more like spring.

This is how it looked in the fall.

last winter…

a different spring…

Instant

I’m not much for kitchen gadgets anymore. I found that I would rather chop by hand than use an electric chopper and since I don’t entertain a lot anymore I don’t need those little fancy gadgets that do specialized things. Most of the fancy things have ended up on a storage shelf in the basement. But I decided to try out an Instant pot when my sisters continually told me how great her pressure cooker was. At first I hesitated thinking about my mother’s pressure cooker and thinking it was a dangerous thing. But my curiosity overwhelmed my fear and an Instant pot came home with me from Walmart. The very first time I used it I was convinced that this is the best thing I’ve had in a long time. I think we all have cooked meat only to have it tough and inedible. But with this pot that never happens. I’ve cooked stews and soups and everything I’ve made in it turns out tasty and tender.

Last night I tried something completely different.  I found this seasoning packet at Big Lots. I am all in favor of these little envelopes. This one was beef Stew Goulash. I had a small steak which I browned up in an oiled pan with some spices. I added the steak, this envelope and some water to the pot and pushed the stew/meat button (after I carefully put on the lid of course). It takes a few minutes for the pot to get up to temperature and then it begins timing down (for 35 minutes for meat). All that was left was for me to cook the noodles. Don and I both agreed that it was delicious. The steak was melt in your mouth tender and the flavoring of the thin sauce was extraordinary. There are many recipes online and on Pinterest for using this convenient device. Have you tried it yet?

Take heart

Take heart---for better days are coming.

Sunny days with yellow song-filled mornings

And afternoons echoing distant happy shouts of children playing in the sun.

The evenings—ah—the evenings.

Cooled down from heat of day,

when silver sparks of fireflies make meadows look like nighttime skies.

The memories stir my heart.

Heat up the icy landscape outside my window.

I wrote this poem many years ago. I used to love writing poetry. This afternoon I was going through my photo albums looking for an old picture of me with my Easter bonnet and basket but I couldn’t find the album that it was in. That lead me to going through all my photo albums and taking a trip down memory lane. I had one album that I had made when I took a graduate class a long time ago. (I have my Master’s degree plus 42 credits) I had made it when I taught the gifted program in our school district. That part of my career was the most satisfying I ever experienced. I was allowed to write my own curriculum and had an almost unlimited budget for materials. It was a dream job. I had small classes of the brightest kids in the schools and total control of what I wanted to teach and how I wanted to teach it with no restrictions. I taught architecture, Medieval times, Pioneer and Space simulation games, hydroponics, art history and much more using an abundance of creativity. The children and parents loved it as well as I did. Today I came across this album that I had made and sat down to read it. Included in the album were the newsletters that I had sent out to the parents and administration chronicling our activities. As I read it brought back all the memories of the things that we had done and the fun we had learning. I was so fortunate to be able to do that for nine years. The best part of the album was the letters that the students wrote about their classes and about their teacher. I cherish each one of them and it makes me proud that I was a teacher. 

Here is another poem that I found:

Santa, are ya out there tonight?

Permed haired girls with porcelain skin wait in their $150,000 houses for dawn to prance before the fireplaces opening multitudes of gifts. “Thank you, mammy and daddy.”

   Spiked haired boys sneak out of their football printed sheets, put on their Nike sneakers, and open their Nintendos and Ataris and Apples.

Moms glow with gold, dads smile at electric screwdrivers.

Across the world a nation of children just wake up

swatting flies off their swollen bellies.

Santa, are ya out there tonight?

Eggs

Easter is coming and with it are the memories of my childhood Easters. I think everyone must have that Easter picture of themselves all dressed up in Easter finery complete with hat and basket. Not a lot of photographs were taken back in day except for special occasions  Certainly not like now where phone cameras are everywhere and every action is immortalized inside a device or posted for all the world to see. 

    I was lucky to have the very best parents and they upheld the traditions of dyeing eggs and hiding baskets. It was a joy to run with my sisters all over the house to look for our Easter baskets and I remember the delight of finding them (in the most obvious places). And getting that much chocolate at once was rare. I always started with the solid chocolate bunny’s ears (didn’t we all?) My father was a pharmacist and they sold Russel Stover candy so naturally our baskets were filled with delights. We carried on the traditions with our two boys also. Do you have any special things that you did at Easter?

Spring Fever

Mark Twain once said, “It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
Yes, it’s the first day of spring…at least on the calendar. Outside where it is in the twenties it doesn’t seem so. For those worried about more snow in the future, this Lilly Pulitzer quote may be just what you need. “Despite the forecast, live like it’s Spring.”So instead of thinking about that we keep Spring in our hearts. Go to the Dairy Queen today where they will be giving out free vanilla soft serve cones to honor the day.  

Just close your eyes

Just close your eyes for a moment. Can you imagine Spring? If I listen hard enough I can hear birds chirping outside the window. Wait…the window is open and allowing a warm breeze to sashay into the house. I’m drinking ice tea sitting in a wicker chair outside. In my hands is a great mystery novel and I’m propped up on pillows. The fountain’s gurgle is in the background and soothing me almost to sleep. …………..

Let’s talk pillows

What would a home be without a soft pillow. It not only adds a decorative accent to your room but is practical also. I trade out my pillows on the couch for the season and now I have a great bird pillow on the couch. But the pillow I want to tell you about today is that little gray pillow in the foreground. I just received it from Amazon and I can’t say enough about it. It is a little triangular pillow which is meant to hold your ipad or other device while you are sitting or even laying in bed watching an ipad program. It is wonderful and frees your hands..especially if you use it in different ways to hold your ipad and wireless keyboard as I am doing now. 

It is called an Ipevo pad pillow stand. 

But I have discovered another thing it is good for. When I am reading a novel it is great to put on my lap to hold the book up. (You know how heavy a book can get when you read for hours.). Isn’t it amazing how a little gadget that you didn’t even know existed a week ago can be so helpful?

More and more snow

Every time I look out the window I see snow coming down. It seems this winter was not so bad until March came along and now the snow seems continuous.  Add below freezing temperatures to that and it has very one saying they long for warmer weather.  With not a lot to do I watched Roman Israel, Esq. on video. Not a fan. I did go to the YMCA for a workout. I actually enjoy my time on the treadmill listening to a podcast. Decorating Tips and Tricks. It takes my mind off of the fact that I am exercising.  I can’t wait until I am able to actually walk outside on the trails.  Meanwhile it’s back to  shoveling  snow. 

A short guide to a happy life

I picked up this book the other day at my Literary Club meeting. It’s just a small book full of wisdom. It says the things that I wish I had the words to put in writing. Here is a little excerpt. 

“I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that this is not a dress rehearsal and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and to try to give some of it back, because I believed in it completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part  by telling others what I had learned, even though so many people may have thought I sounded like a Pollyanna.  By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face.  Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness because if you do you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.”

I would add: If you have a chance to do something, do it. Go to the library weekly and find good books. Travel and see new things. Talk to your friends, and do something with them. Take joy in your cup of tea. Light a candle. Eat outside. Take a walk as often as you can. Look at the view. 

 What would you add to the list?

I should write a poem

If you didn’t know better wouldn’t you think these orange tiger lilies were real?...and that it was the middle of summer when the blooms are plentiful? When I saw them at Walmart I knew I needed a spot of bright orange in the kitchen. I should write a poem called I need flowers. You can see that it snowed again yesterday and last night dumping another foot. I couldn’t get the car up the driveway when I got home from coffee and Walmart. I had to get out the shovel and clear a path for the tires and Don had to bring it up for me. We do have someone who plows for us but he had a hip replacement so we got another guy. He isn’t quite as good about getting out to clear the driveway in the morning. I also had to shovel the sidewalks. Our first guy did all that for us. 

I stopped at the library for a few books and two new movies. I think that will be my afternoon. I was planning on going to Fredericksburg Virginia to see my sister this weekend. Even though it’s a long seven hour drive I thought it would be worth it to get into some sunshine and warmth. When I started looking at the weather on Saturday they were going to have a high on the weekend of sixty seven but as the week progressed the forecast got worse and now it’s only going to be fifty two and rain. That is not worth driving down especially when we are going to have snow on Friday morning. (Remember how we started out driving and had to turn around?) So I will be staying home. Possibly an old friend of Don’s might be coming for the weekend. 

Are you a person who buys flowers regularly?

Does it seem like spring where you are?  Not here. Snow again last night, not deep but it covered those little patches of grass I was so happy to see yesterday. Not a lot going on today. I had a hair appointment this morning. It’s always nice to get a haircut. I think I’ll just sit and read until time for my art class. 

Hopping down the bunny trail

I see grass.  There are patches of brownish yellow grass where the snow melted off a little yesterday as the temperatures climbed above freezing. We always wait for the last snowfall which is unpredictable. We have been famous for St. Patrick's Day blizzards in the past but I think global warming has made a difference here since our winters have been so much milder lately. I noticed the tiny stalks of daffodils have peeked their heads up in the flower garden. 

Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

—Zen saying

DEER ON THE MOVE

It is always a joy to catch movement outside my window in the morning and notice that deer are on the move. I have a hill in the back of my house and deer are a common sight. This morning four deer walked from the woods and across my back yard. In the pictures you can notice the branches which fell from the trees during our heavy snow last week.

Nope, not here yet

This recent snowfall and cold has me yearning for warmth. Each night I sleep with my heated mattress pad turned on. I tend to have circulation problems and my hands and toes are always cold even though my house is warm. Spring is still not close so I stay inside. I’m getting cabin fever despite how busy I try to stay.  

Even the chipmunks must be trying to get warm. When I put a load in the dryer I heard a loud thunk and the inside wouldn’t turn.  Later when Don checked it it worked. The next day when I went downstairs I could smell the distinct odor of dead animal. Yes, a chipmunk had crawled into the vent and died.  Don  had to take the dryer all apart (aren’t I so lucky that he has the skill to do that?) sure enough he found three dead chipmunks in the vent. I felt so bad. This must not be unusual because when I told my friends two of them had the same experience with a mouse. 

I have a book to read and Netflix to watch. Mozart in the Jungle begins its new season.  How are you occupying yourself these days?

My town

Our town has a Facebook page called I GREW UP IN BRADFORD PA. The last time I checked it had over six thousand (just checked again...almost seven thousand) members. It seems that people who have left the community are still interested in their hometown. Locals post pictures along with current events and history. 

 One great photographer who posts a lot of pictures taken from a drone is Nate Bottorf.  I really love this one that shows how out town is situated in all the valleys of the hills.  

When I was a kid we lived in the far upper center of this picture. We had a small “gang” led by the oldest girl (tomboy) in the neighborhood.  One of our occasional adventures was to climb to the very top of the hill behind our house.  Way at the top was a clearing and a small apple orchard. We would eat and gather apples to take home.  I always said that Johnny Appleseed planted that small orchard. 

But Johnny did sell lots of apple trees, from Pennsylvania to Indiana. "He started nurseries at the edge of the frontier -- actually started them before civilization got there," said Means. 

"The land companies would sell you, say, 100 acres on the condition that you planted an orchard.  And so you had a guy sitting there, waiting to sell you these seedlings."

The fruits borne by those seedlings, though, weren't exactly appetizing -- and those apples weren't for eating. They were used for hard cider. Yes, alcohol.

An illustration from the Saturday Evening Post showing American folk hero Johnny Appleseed.

 MIKE MUNDEN/AP

"There was a lot of alcohol drunk on the frontier because it was a safe drink," Means said. "Pure water was impossible to find for the most part."

So, Johnny was pushing more than West. 

At the Goeglein Mill in Fort Wayne, the the alcoholic apple juice is flowing. Don Goeglein's grandfather started his cider press in 1929.

During Prohibition?  "It was," Goeglein said. "I told these guys when they started the hard cider business, they said, 'Here's the first taste.' And I said, 'Well, that's not the first -- that's the first legal batch to come out!'"

In fact, it was the prohibition of alcohol that made the apple respectable.

"The apple-a-day for health was an effort by apple growers, after Prohibition came along, to find a new use for their product," Means said.

Johnny

Waiting for Spring

Waiting for spring

Waiting for spring

Waiting for spring

Waiting for spring.....

Taking care of business

Are you the green pen in a box of white ones? Sometimes I feel that way.

You can look at it like you don’t fit in…or you can say you are different.
Or you can just be glad of it.

Those pesky little errands

(banking, paperwork

thinking about a new car

whoops, my passport is outdated)

get in the way of having fun.

Let the shananigans begin

Yesterday I hosted the Giggle Girls for an afternoon of fun and laughter. Isn't it great to have a group of girls who see the funny side of life? We laugh at the craziest things and spend three hours just having fun. We talk, lose our place in the game, forget whose turn it is, and enjoy drinks and snacks all the while giggling. This isn't a very good video but it gives you the idea. 

Sue is our resident crazy person (and I mean that in the most flattering way). She came dressed in her St. Patrick's Day splendor with t shirt, beaded tie, shamrocks, and funny socks. She just makes our day.
  One of our friends is going in for a hip replacement in Pittsburgh this week and we had an ice cream cake for her which said "Hurry Home". Another of our friends fell on an uneven sidewalk just before coming while walking her dog and laid there in the cold twenty minutes before someone saw her and came to help. She is suffering with a knee injury. We all love and support our friends and are glad for this group of great gals.

Movie Review: Three Billboards

Last night we rented Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. I saw that it was up for a lot of Oscar nominations:

7 NOMINATIONS

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Best Picture
Best Actress —  Frances McDormand
Best Supporting Actor — Woody Harrelson
Best Supporting Actor — Sam Rockwell
Best Original Screenplay
Best Film Editing
Best Score

It stars the great Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, a mother grieving over her daughter's rape and murder, and going slowly insane that the justice system doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. In her desperation to bring attention to her daughter's case, she takes out three billboards along the highway, calling out the local Sheriff, Bill Willoughby (played by Woody Harrelson) and his deputy Jason Dixon (played by Sam Rockwell).

Sheriff Willoughby is already dying from cancer, and takes the billboards personally. Things escalate as the town divides — those who side with Willoughby and those who side with Hayes.

So I thought it might be good.
Although the story was good (except for an ending that left you hanging..I hate that) but the language (every other word was f***) was terrible and unnecessary. Frances McDormand was excellent in the role and I agree that she should win the oscar.

More spring touches